Hopper for face orienting unsymmetrically faced articles



Aug. 25, 1964 I. MEDOFF ETAL 3,145,875

HOPPER FOR FACE ORIENTING UNSYMMETRICALLY FACED ARTICLES Filed Sept. 20,1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN V EN TORS hiV/NG NEOOI-F 09/04:; [DAG/6m:

WA TI'ORA/E) I Aug. 25, 1964 l. MEDOFF ET AL HOPPER FOR FACE ORIENTINGUNSYMMETRICALLY FACED ARTICLES Filed Sept. 20 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 @a 5/aa 5 4/4 /J v 42 v.67 II 46 7 52 43 T 45 4! y FIG/0 INVENTORS MV/A/6NEOOFF 0mm :5 BflMS/G/VOAE BY 27 Z Mn rromm United States Patent3,145,875 HOPPER FOR FACE ORIENTING UNSYMMETRI- CALLY FACED ARTICLESIrving Medotf, Flushing, and Charles Bonsignore, Queens Village, N.Y.,assignors to Emsig Manufacturing Company, New York, N.Y., a partnershipFiled Sept. 20, 1961, Ser. No. 139,434 3 Claims. (Cl. 221-167) Thisinvention relates to a hopper construction for orienting disk-likeobjects, and more particularly, to a device for use for orientingbuttons. Still more particularly, this invention relates to facewiseorientation of buttons of unsymmetrical face contour, to be fed seriatimedgewise to a button feeder.

This invention is related to application Serial No. 789,826, filedJanuary 29, 1959, now Patent No. 3,044,- 660, July 17, 1962, filed inthe names of William A. Troll and Charles Bonsignore, which is owned bythe common assignee.

In the aforesaid joint application, there is disclosed an orientatingassembly for sewing hole buttons having front and back faces which areunsymmetrical or of dissimilar contour, particularly valuable forfeeding sew through buttons to a feeder in accordance with the UnitedStates patent to Troll No. 2,661,709.

In the said application Serial No. 789,826, it has been found that thereis a limitation in the range of button sizes which may be handled and inadapting the hopper orienting assembly to large volume capacity.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an orienting hopperfor buttons having unsymmetrically contoured rear and front faceswherein the same hopper may be utilized wtih very rapid adjustment tofacewise orientation of buttons, within a wide range of sizes and with aspeed to maintain interruption of the work to a minimum.

Still more particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide amotorized hopper for orienting buttons of unsymmetrical contour which issimple in construction, readily adaptable to the handling of a widerange of sizes of buttons or similar disks, and is quickly adjustable tocope with diiferent sizes and contours of unsymmetrically faced buttonsto assure a steady flow of oriented buttons at a maximum rate of speed.

To attain these objects, and such further objects as may appear herein,or be hereinafter pointed out, We make reference to the accompanyingdrawings forming a part hereof, in which FIGURE 1 is a fragmentaryperspective view of a hopper in accordance with this invention;

FIGURE 1A is a perspective view exemplifying a button of unsymmetricalcontour to be used therewith;

FIGURE 1B is a section on the line lB-lB of FIG URE 1A.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of detail parts ofthe gauging gate construction;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of FIGURE1, with a button shown incorrectly oriented;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a section through the gauging gate illustrating one positionof a button properly oriented;

FIGURE 6 is a view similar to FIGURE 5 showing a button improperlyoriented;

FIGURE 7 is a magnified section taken on the line 7-7 of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 8 is a magnified section similar to FIGURE 7, with thedistributor in the depressed position;

FIGURE 9 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 99 of FIGURE 8;

3,145,875 Patented Aug. 25, 1964 FIGURE 10 is a fragmentary sectiontaken on the line 1010 of FIGURE 8.

In general, this invention deals with the provision of a hopper 10arranged to be mounted on a vertical standard (not shown) in closeproximity to a sewing machine for sewing buttons, where a bulk supply ofbuttons in the hopper is in readiness to be oriented facewise to abutton feeder, as exemplified in the Troll patent already mentioned. Anexample of the buttons to be oriented is shown in FIGURES 1A and 1Bwherein the diskshaped button 5 is formed with a generally convexlyshaped back face 6 and a generally concave front face 7, to form anupwardly directed rim 8. For convenience of reference, there isillustrated a sew-through button and we will refer to said button as anunsymmetrical button. It will be understood however, that the inventionherein is in no wise limited to FIGURES 1A and 1B, but will functionsatisfactorily with a wide variety of button shapes.

Reference will now be made to the drawings, wherein the hopper 10 isarranged to be connected to a chute section C of the construction shownin the Troll patent aforesaid, wherein buttons may slide in seriatimarrangement edgewise in the downwardly, angularly directed chute leadingto the presser foot assembly for further orienting the buttonperforations thereof with respect to the stitching operation of thesewing machine.

The container 10 is preferably cylindrical and has a bottom 11 arrangedto be angularly mounted upon a standard (not shown). The bottom thuswill gravitationally direct the charge of buttons to the low pointadjacent which the chute section C is attached. The chute sectionpreferably is located in trailing position with repect to the low pointto minimize jamming which might occur if the bulk of buttons werestacked at the chute entrance portion.

To the bottom 11 is afiixed a bracket 12, from which is extended anelectric motor assembly M to drive, through a pulley 13 and a slip belt14, by suitable reduction gearing, a countershaft 15 extending throughthe bottom 11.

Keyed to the shaft 15 by a threaded collar 15a is a rotary circulardistributor plate 16, which plate is in wiping contact with the bottomas it rotates and is desirably formed of a thickness from its periphery17 inwardly to approximate the thickness of the button 5, which may thusfit within the radially formed pocketing means 18 by reason of thepocket being open where the periphery is in close contact with theinterior face of the container wall, so that, with the underlyingbottom, only a single button Will be held flatwise.

The side walls 19 of the pocketing means 18, are nonradial, to provide apositive rake in the direction of rotation. The size of the pocketingmeans is such as to hold a wide range of button sizes and the rake ofthe side walls is chosen to aid in an outward edgewise roll of thebutton against the trailing wall 19 in combination with the containerwall.

The distributor 16 rotates beneath a substantially radially directedwiper 20, supported rigidly from the interior wall of the container andprovided at its lower edge with a brushing element 21 of soft rubber orbristles, Which is supported to contact the distributor 16 to unstack toa single layer of buttons, Whatever bulked buttons are carried betweenthe distributor 16 and the wiper 20.

A Plexiglas lid 21a, hinged at 22 and provided with a knob 23 and adetent latch 24, serves to provide an enclosure through which thecontents may be observed, as well as to permit the use of a large bulksupply, as will be readily understood.

The bottom 11 of the hopper container 10, at the lowermost edge,adjacent the point for connection to the chute section C, when held ininclined position, is pro- 3 vided with a slot or cutout 24 (see FIGURE4), extending to the periphery of the bottom, into which is slidably andremovably fitted a port trap block 25 attached and held at one end byscrews 26 to the support plate 27 forming part of the fixed assembly towhich the entire hopperis mounted The port trap block 25 has its surfaceportion 28 arranged to be flush with the bottom 11 and is forwardlyprovided with a port trap 29 of a depth to receive the thickness of thebutton to be oriented and of a width as determined by the trap wall 30,so that the button may be permitted tiltably to enter the port trap 29at a point outwardly beyond the trap wall 30. For this purpose, as willappear herein, there is provided a gauging gate block 31, overlying theport trap block 25 slidably and removably held beneath the angle braceblock 32 in the container wall discharge aperture 33 over the cutout 24between the flange 34 and the port trap block 25, by means of screws35a.

The gauging gate block 31, at its outward end, is arranged to overliethe throat opening 35 extending from the port trap 29 to form a gate inwhich a button may slide fiatwise. At the inner end 36 of the gauginggate block 31, a stepped portion 37 is aligned with the plane of theupper face of distributor 16 and carries a gauging pin 38,screw-threaded for adjustment with its head in the countersunk portion39 of the block 31. The gauging pin 38 has its end 46 extending into theport trap 29.

The end of the gauging pin is adjustable with relation to the port trap29 to permit passage of a button in a tilted position into the throatopening 35 only if the button is oriented with the face '7 upward (seeFIGURE 5) and dimensionally to obstruct the button for passage if thebutton is tilted or presented with its rear face 6 upward (see FIGURES 3and 6).

The upper end 41 of the chute section C may thereupon be aligned andconnected to the gate block 31 to complete the assembly of hopper to thefeeder chute C by the removable screws 42 which span the entrance slotof the uppermost chute section.

The operation of the orienting hopper thus far described involves, uponfilling the hopper with a large quantity of buttons or like disks,rotating the distributor plate 16 by means of the motorized drive Mduring feeder operation to the sewing machine.

The tendency of the buttons or like disks to lie fiat along the plate 16as it rotates will cause them, or a large number thereof, to drop into apocketing means 18 and be carried eventually along the container wall tothe chute entrance. Other buttons or disks not fully entering thepocketing means 18 will be brushed or wiped into the pocketing means bythe wiper 20, the wiper also serving to unstack piled-up buttonsflatwise, to accelerate filling of a button within the pocketing means18 and wipe away any button engaged with an underlying button. Thedistributor will thereupon move the buttons by combined rotation androlling into a first position over the port trap 29 and the buttons willenter the trap in a tilted condition.

If the button is tilted and positioned with the concave face 7 directedtoward the gauging pin end 40 (see FIG- URE 5) which is axiallypositioned in the trap, there will be enough clearance for the button todrop and pass into the trap to the throat opening 35. If the button ispresented with the convex side toward the gauging pin end 40, theclearance between the gauging pin end 40 and the port trap 29 isinadequate for the button to pass to the throat opening 35 (see FIGURE6). The button will thereupon be carried past the trap by the counterclockwisely moving distributor disk.

While the element of chance is in favor of the buttons being fed to theport trap aligned face side up in sufliciently large numbers for a veryrapid, seriatim edge-toedge feed into the chute C for complete dischargeof all the contents of the hopper in a steady and uninter- 4 rupted flowwithout skips, it is a feature of this invention promptly to returndownturned or improperly oriented buttons into circulation within thehopper after they are moved to a second position from said port trap.

Moreover those buttons which are carried beyond the trap are clearedfrom the pockets of the disk in a manher which tumbles the buttons.

By tumbling or flipping over those buttons which were not in a conditionto pass through the trap, i.e. were positioned concave side down, aconsiderable proportion of such buttons will be returned to the bulksupply with the concave side up.

To effect the clearing and tumbling action above referred to, the bottom11 is provided with a cutout portion 41a in a trailing position inrelation to the port trap 29, through which a spring biased ejector 42is positioned (see FIGURES 7, 8 and 9). A fork-shaped block 43, havingspaced branches 44 spanning the cutout 41a, is supported and heldagainst the bottom 11 by screw fastening means 45. Upon the branches 44,there is pivoted the ejector lever 46 by pivotally mounting the lever ona cross pin 47 along the length of the lever in an offcenter position.Between the outer end 48 and the screws the lever is biased by thespring 49 to project the longer portion having the tripping end 50through the cutout 4111 into operative relation with the distributor 16,to be aligned with the pocketing means 18 near the periphery of thebottom 11 and engage the lands 18a as the distributor rotates. Spacedfrom the tripping end 50, it is preferred to mount a friction reducingroller 51 supported on a cross pin 52. The roller 51 is positioned inrelation to the tripping end 50 so that as the distributor 16 rotates,the lands 13a will depress the end 50 from the pocketing means 18 butwhen the leading wall 19 of the pocketing means uncovers the end 50, thespring 49 will project the end 50 with a snap action through thepocketing means 18 (see FIGURE 7). The effect is to hurl and tend tosommersault a button from the pocketing means back into circulation withthe bulk supply. During the operation of a feeder when buttons, properlyoriented, are discharged through the port trap, it is more probable thatonly improperly positioned buttons will reach the position beyond theport trap. Thus, a large number of buttons, positioned seriatim in acontinuous stream may be expected to be properly presented at the trapport. The distributor effectively may also serve to discharge everybutton, as rapidly as required, without the manual assistance which maypreviously have been required when the supply approaches the last of thecontents and by this construction, a full and complete clearing iseffected without requiring any special attention.

As an additional feature, it is possible to utilize the motorized meansof clearing the unused contents of the hopper, notwithstanding a lowinclination of the bottom of the hopper, to the very last button. Thisis effected by the provision of a smooth fitting side wall discharge orclosure segment 55 in the wall in the hopper (see FIGURES 1 and 4). Thisclosure segment 55 is preferably hingedly mounted to provide continuityof the wall of the container in a position trailing the port trap 29 andleading the cutout 41a in the bottom.

When color or size changes of the bulk supply of buttons is to beeffected, to clear the hopper, the closure segment 55 is moved to theopen position hingedly, to provide a side wall opening 56 in line withthe bottom 11, and the motor N is switched to continue operation which,by reason of the slip belt connection, effectively rolls out everyunused button from the hopper in a very short time, with assurance thatno remnant of the undesired, previously used supply is retained, to befed to the feeder and sewing machine accidentally.

By the assembly, a wide range of sizes of buttons or the like disks maybe fed in oriented position, with little attention after filling anddischarge operations, each rapidly performed to achieve an uninterruptedseriatim flow of correctly facewise oriented unsymmetrically facedbuttons or disks for use by a feeder or the like component of anattaching machine or a machine performing stitching operations.

Having thus described the invention and illustrated its use, what weclaim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a hopper for a feeder chute arranged for orienting buttons or likeshaped disks from a bulk supply, each having unsymmetrically contouredfaces, a bottom member for said hopper having a port trap into whichsaid buttons may be discharged from said hopper flatwise, a section ofsaid feeder chute having a throat opening, connected with said bottom toreceive buttons discharged through said port trap in a flatwiseposition, slidably to guide said buttons edgewise along said chute, abutton gauging gate means in said port trap in the path leading to saidthroat opening, the combination therewith of a distributor in saidhopper having button pocketing means for carrying buttons flatwise insaid hopper along said bottom to direct individual buttons to a firstposition over said port trap through which they are discharged past saidbutton gate means if properly oriented, said pocketing means carryingimproperly oriented buttons along said bottom to a second positiontrailing said first position, and means to discharge said buttons fromthe button pocketing means in the second position into the bulk supplyin said hopper.

2. In a hopper for a feeder chute arranged for orienting buttons or likeshaped disks from a bulk supply, each having unsymmetrically contouredfaces, a bottom member for said hopper having a port trap into whichsaid buttons may be discharged from said hopper flatwise, a section ofsaid feeder chute having a throat opening connected with said bottom toreceive buttons discharged through said port trap in a flatwiseposition, slidably to guide said buttons edgewise along said chute, abutton gauging gate means in said port trap in the path leading to saidthroat opening, the combination therewith of a distributor in saidhopper having button pocketing means for carrying buttons flatwise insaid hopper along said bottom to direct individual buttons to a firstposition over said port trap through which they are discharged past saidbutton gate means if properly oriented, said pocketing means carryingimproperly oriented buttons along said bottom to a second positiontrailing said first position, and means to discharge said buttons fromthe button pocketing means in the second position into the bulk supplyin said hopper, said pocketing means comprising spaced radially extendedlands revolubly carried along said bottom member and defining partitionmembers and pockets for said buttons, said means to discharge thebuttons from the pocketing means comprising a spring projected ejectoractuated to the retracted condition by said lands and eifective whenreleased to impel a button, carried by said pocketing means into thesecond position, into the bulk supply to sommersault and tumble the sameinto a new facewise position.

3. A device in accordance with claim 2 wherein said spring ejectorincludes a nose portion projected into said pockets at a position offsetfrom the center thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS453,873 Upjohn June 9, 1891 534,361 Courtney Feb. 19, 1895 814,182Anderson et a1 Mar. 6, 1906 1,600,715 Cameron Sept. 21, 1926 1,905,715Ingram et al. Apr. 25, 1933 2,356,945 Pesznecker Aug. 29, 1944 2,388,405Glaude Nov. 6, 1945 2,440,080 Eck et a1. Apr. 20, 1948 2,612,796 Bastianet a1. Oct. 7, 1952 2,631,714 McCain Mar. 17, 1953 2,959,324 Hendricksonet a1 Nov. 8, 1960

1. IN A HOPPER FOR A FEEDER CHUTE ARRANGED FOR ORIENTING BUTTONS OR LIKESHAPED DISKS FROM A BULK SUPPLY, EACH HAVING UNSYMMETRICALLY CONTOUREDFACES, A BOTTOM MEMBER FOR SAID HOPPER HAVING A PORT TRAP INTO WHICHSAID BUTTONS MAY BE DISCHARGED FROM SAID HOPPER FLATWISE, A SECTION OFSAID FEEDER CHUTE HAVING A THROAT OPENING, CONNECTED WITH SAID BOTTOM TORECEIVE BUTTONS DISCHARGED THROUGH SAID PORT TRAP IN A FLATWISEPOSITION, SLIDABLY TO GUIDE SAID BUTTONS EDGEWISE ALONG SAID CHUTE, ABUTTON GAUGING GATE MEANS IN SAID PORT TRAP IN THE PATH LEADING TO SAIDTHROAT OPENING, THE COMBINATION THEREWITH OF A DISTRIBUTOR IN SAIDHOPPER HAVING BUTTON POCKETING MEANS FOR CARRYING BUTTONS FLATWISE INSAID HOPPER ALONG SAID BOTTOM TO DIRECT INDIVIDUAL BUTTONS TO A FIRSTPOSITION OVER SAID PORT TRAP THROUGH WHICH THEY ARE DISCHARGED PAST SAIDBUTTON GATE MEANS IF PROPERLY ORIENTED, SAID POCKETING